Tenzacahuacan (MH706r)

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Tenzacahuacan (perhaps “Where They Have Lip Plugs”) shows the head of a man in profile, looking toward the viewer’s right. He is inside a building (perhaps a calli–red, black, and white–with the standard architectural features, in profile, also facing right) in the normal place for a lord, but he does not wear a cloak or a diadem. Attached by a line to this man’s mouth is the face of another person whose mouth (tentli) is open. A beaked bird comes out of this mouth, not far from where there might have been a large lip plug (tenzacatl or tezacatl). The beak is open, perhaps ready to pick at something, suggesting the verb tzacania. If so, this would be a phonetic indicator in the form of a homophone, given the audible overlap between tenzacatl and tzacania.